Software Selection

Your business software system is the single most critical portion of your information systems infrastructure. It should provide a basis for all of your business transactions, as well as a means of effective communications with your customers and vendors. It should provide you with forward-looking and actionable information, as well as give you a means of comparing actual vs. anticipated results. The lifespan of the selected software system is between 5 and 10 years.

The investment in these systems is typically significant both in terms of capital outlay and in the amount of time the employees will spend in the adoption of the application(s). It is therefore extremely important that the software you select is the best match with the needs of your organization.

For any given industry, there are several possible software applications from which to choose. Each have their strengths and weaknesses, and during the review process the respective sales teams do their best to highlight the strengths and hide the weaknesses, dealing with the gaps (between functional needs of the business and the feature set of the software) after the sale has been finalized. Filling these gaps is expensive and is one of the leading causes of implementation failure, and even risks the failure of the organization itself.

Engaging a partner experienced in 1) determining (and refining) the functional needs of the organization, and 2) in truly revealing the capabilities of each application will be a strong move towards becoming more efficient and eliminating the risk of selecting an application that is not the best match for your organization.

Tactical Cloud can provide that assurance. Our consultants have an average of 10 years of software implementation experience across over a dozen applications. It is at the implementation of software where the “rubber meets the road”, and when the true functionality of the software (and the nature of the publisher) can be experienced and documented.

Software SelectionA great example of how to choose your business management software wisely

Corporate Performance Management OR Business Intelligence?
Begin the software selection process by evaluating a robust CPM tool first,
because it usually includes built-in Business Intelligence.